Tarping in Ashland

News from Ashland

HI Mom!

thanks for you email. So last week i was told that i was going to be transferred to Medford at 1:30 on monday. that is the only information they gave me. they didnt tell me what was my area or who my companion is until i was on the transfer van half way to medford. while i was on the van they told me that i was being transferred to a town called Ashland and that my companion would be Elder Ratto. When i was told that i was being transferred to medford area i was actually super bummed but as soon as i was told i was actually going to Ashland (which is in the Medford zone) i got super stoked. i have heard a lot about Ashland and actually wanted to serve here at some point in my mission. i guess now is the time. I love it here. Ashland is probably one of my favorite areas. the town is incredible and the atmosphere is great. there are a ton of hippies though. When we go tracting we run into a lot of people that say no thanks because they have already found their "Zen". Ha so it makes it pretty interesting. Have you ever heard of a Zen Mormon? because i sure havent until i came down here and saw what they meant by that. they are some interesting people. this is definately a place that i think everyone needs to check out. and while you are down here you need to try this stuff called Lythia water. its pretty interesting and people swear that it can cure any desease you have. the first day i was here i tried it and lets just say that everyone who comes here has to do it. this town is acutally pretty awesome and i think it will be one of my favorite areas of my entire mission. for those that down know where Ashland is in the Oregon Eugene mission, here is a little geography lession. Ashland is the second farthest south missionaries will serve other than Yreka California. so there are only two missionaries further south then my companion and I.

Ashland is super awesome but it does have some interesting things that arent that great, but all the other super awesomeness makes up for it. one thing that is annoying about it is that basically everyone that is younger then 80 is an extreme liberal. and because of that they all love their toyota prius. it seems that every liberal town in oregon is infested with these rediculous cars! so that is another thing that is no bueno about Ashland. On another note our apartment is... well... super ghetto. i have seen some other missionaries apartments thoughout the mission and none of them have beat the one that i am staying in now. in fact some missionaries find it so gross that when we go on exchanges they refuse to take showers there. its funny but so, so true. the toilet doesnt flush like 75 percent of the time and the floor is peeling. there is black mold growing in the shower and the floor of the shower is yellow and brown. the carpet... oh the carpet... lets just say if a doctor told be that i will die from some sort of desease that i recieved from walking on that carpet barefoot i wouldnt doubt it. the only thing that we have for heat are these space heaters that are plugged in our living room and our bedroom. oh and the kitchen is basically completely falling apart. the cabinets are falling off and everything is breaking or is super disgusting.

My new companion is Elder Ratto. he is a pretty interesting guy. we conflict on a lot of things but i am trying to figure out how i can better work with him. he has had an interesting past and i think that because of time i will explain him more next week.

on a good note we commited someone to baptism! his name is flip and he is a super cool guy and is incredibly energetic. anyways i will explain more about him later also. but i have to go now. anyways love you and everyone else that is reading this!

Bummed about leaving Grant's Pass

Dear Mom,

Thanks for the update on everything. i am trying to send out more snail mail to everyone but lately it has been pretty much impossible. last week i was going to but i ended up having to move apartments so i had to pack where i would usually write letters. they kicked us out of our apartment so they could move sisters in to cover an area next to ours. anyways transfers are this week and i am being transfered to Medford today. Usually they transfer on tuesday or wednesday but i guess they are transfering me today which is super lame. so that is going to make it hard to write letters because i will spend most of my writing time traveling and getting food to last me till next p day. so yeah. i will try though. i was shocked that i was being transfered because you usually arent in one area for just one transfer. i actually was pretty mad about it because i was going to have 3 baptisms here and we were teaching that were probably going to get baptized all in feb. so it was hard to leave. especially on such short notice because i found out last night that i was leaving today so i dont get to say goodbye. anyways what's going on back home? how's life over there? can you send me some more pictures of back home? (family and such) i really enjoy pictures and you should tell everyone to do the same. love you tons!

Christmas Season 2011

Hi mom and everyone else!

how is everything going? the mission is going great. Today is off because our P-day is on Saturday instead of Monday due to New Years. So anyways... The mission is going awesome! last night I was on exchanges with my zone leader and set two baptismal dates with people. This month the Oregon Eugene mission is trying to get 100 baptisms. since are President came out with that mission goal we have started to see miracles. my companion and I already have two people with a baptisimal date. One has been meeting with missionaries for over a year and we finally got him to commit to baptism. he is going to be baptized on the 7th of this month. We also have another investigator that is going to be baptized on the 21st but she has to get married and quit smoking before then. We might also get three more this month. One almost for sure and the other two possibly. The other two need to stop smoking the Mary Jane and they should be good. we will see this week though. I think that our President should always send out goals like this because I realized that when he sends out these goals, we start to see incredible miracles. such as finding 8 new investigators this week which is pretty insane because it was double our goal and over half of our entire district goal. anyways time is running short so i better wrap up everything is going good and i will hopefully write more next time.

sincerely Elder Berg ps everyone write me!

Return to Mission

Hi Mom! everything is going good! getting back to the mission is a big help. when i got back i started to do a lot better with eating and everything. nothing has really happened here since i got back to the mission. it is basically pretty much the same as before. so i am doing pretty good. there isnt much to report because not too much has been going on since i have been back. anyways yeah medically i am doing fine everything seems to be in order and i cant wait to get back to work.

Recovery

Nate recovering from surgery. He read Preach My Gospel through more than once.

Surgery

Nate came home on 12/6/11 for an urgent surgery to release scar tissue from a bike accident. He was not happy about coming home but was pleased that he could go back out in less than 2 weeks.